ZAMBOANGA DEL NORTE, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Dec. 03, 2007) – Subanon native Fernandez Anda’s face lit up when he saw us emerged from the bushes and clump of trees and into the clearing.

He eagerly welcomed us to his thatched hut and waited for us to catch our breath after an hour’s trek to the steep and rugged mountains of Gulangan, a hamlet in the town. He was thrilled to tell us his story.Our group was headed by Yulo Perez, TVIRD vice president for Philippine Operations; and Thess Limpin, TVIRD manager for Community Relations and Development Office (CReDO). We were joined by CReDO Information Officer Jose Dagala, and Social Development Consultant German Romano.

Barely three months since our last visit to this piece of land in the Subanon ancestral domain in Siocon town in Zamboanga del Norte province, Anda’s farm is now a picture of abundance. What used to be a muddy terrain is now covered with yellow-green rice stalks, with their golden grains standing out under the blazing sun. The model rice terraces project is a success.

Anda, 51, is the first beneficiary of the Farmer-Instructor Technician (FIT) program, a livelihood through agro-forestry component of the Social Development and Management Plan for the indigenous people (IP) hosts of TVI Resource Development Philippines, Inc. (TVIRD). The company has been, since mid-2004, operating gold and silver mine in Mount Canatuan, also in Siocon town, and will begin producing copper and zinc by the middle of 2008.

The success of Anda’s farming can easily be adopted or duplicated by means of irrigated multi-cropping scheme using the rice terraces farming technology, the same technology applied by generations of the Ifugao natives in the mountainous terrains of Northern Philippines.

(I am extremely pleased that my farm is successful using the technology that TVIRD had taught me. We do not need to move from one place to another anymore since we can plant and harvest three times a year in the same paddies; and the yield is enough until the next harvest),” said Anda.

“(More than anything, I am happy because my fellow Subanons are interested and would like to follow the farming techniques that I used here. Under the program, I am committed to teach and transfer to them the skills I have learned),” he said.

The initial plotting and forming of the second rice terraces project have actually begun on a land owned by Rene Tii, another Subanon holder of the Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title, adjacent to Anda’s plot.

Unable to contain his pride for his feat, Anda shared his plans with us: “Plano nako nga palapdan ug padak-an pa ang akong uma para sa sunod nga tanum aron makabaligya na sa abot niini. Sa pagkakaron, igo lamang ang abot niini para makaon sa akong pamilya sanglit testing pa lamang kini (I plan to expand my farm for the next planting season so I would be able to sell its produce. For now, the harvest would just be enough to feed my family since it is still in the trial stage).”

In the past, Anda, like most Subanons, would always worry every harvest time. The yield was usually scant and could not be sustained until the next harvest. And under this method, they could only harvest rice once a year.